The best arts, entertainment, books and culture podcasts, selected and updated
by Pete Naughton

Slate’s Culture Gabfest Slate, an urbane, American-based webzine, produce a variety of fine podcast material – from their monthly Audio Book Club to the well-regarded and equally well-informed Political Gabfest. Pick of the bunch for me, though, is their Culture Gabfest, a reliably sparky weekly roundtable discussion about culture, taking in everything from Hollywood blockbusters like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to Internet trends to under-the-radar album releases.

Tape Unlike film and TV directors, the makers of radio programmes are rarely given much attention by people outside of the industry. In a laudable attempt to buck this trend, this charming podcast profiles a handful of really great American radio producers, creators and hosts – from the executive producer of Radiolab to the creator and host of Here Be Monsters. Hosted by Mickey Capper and the wonderfully-named Mooj Zadie, it manages to be both entertaining and thought-provoking – and a testament to the creative talent currently working in American radio.

Soundings This new cultural magazine series manages the rare feat of being confident, erudite and varied without disappearing in a haze of its own pretensions. Presented by Dylan Haskins and Lisa Hannigan – a pair of erudite, witty London–based Dubliners – it began a few weeks ago with an episode featuring The Word on the Street, a book of rock lyrics by the poet Paul Muldoon; the Palme D'or–winning film Blue is the Colour and an exhibition on London's creative subcultures at the Old Selfridges Hotel.

Related Articles

Studio 360 This weekly arts and culture show – made in collaboration between Public Radio International and the brilliant New York-based public radio station, WNYC is a pleasingly cosmopolitan blend of reviews, interviews and features. Presented by an urbane American novelist called Kurt Andersen, it touches upon everything from Game of Thrones to Shakespeare to David Byrne. Recent interviewees include Kevin Spacey, Ken Burns and the widely admired singer-songwriter Joan As Police Woman.

The Economist: Culture The Economist magazine produce a handful of intelligent podcast strands, a couple of which (The Week Ahead – tgr.ph/15t4Usx – and Editor's Picks – tgr.ph/18XSs3V) have been previously covered in this column. Each episode of their Culture podcast focuses on a different story, with one of the magazine's editors talking to an expert on the subject. Recent highlights include the British Museum's erudite Director, Neil MacGregor, talking about the Cyrus Cylinder, horror novelist Stephen King on the end of affluence and the journalist James Astill on India's enduring love affair with cricket.

Tate Modern These short video podcasts by Tate Modern are a reliable source of pleasure and surprise. They're beautifully shot, thoughtfully put together and refreshingly free of the kind of self–regarding waffle that's so common in the art world. Recent highlights include a lovely appraisal of Roy Lichtenstein by the British pop artist Allen Jones, a short interview with the illustrator Quentin Blake in his London studio and a sparkling little piece about the concerts that Kraftwerk performed at the gallery earlier this year.

Londonist Out Loud Anyone who finds the mainstream media to be unconscionably Londoncentric should probably avoid this podcast strand of 'news, views and curiosities' from the capital. But for people living in or regularly travelling to London, it's a useful and regularly surprising resource. Presented by a husky voiced writer called N Quentin Woolf, it contains a rich mix of everything from Transport for London news to discussions of the city's history – and is particularly good on its many different attractions, with features on the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the National Army Museum, the Shard and the Museum of London, to name a few.

Pop Culture Happy Hour The good folks over at NPR – the undisputed champ of US radio production houses – put out this excellent weekly podcast featuring a roundtable discussion of all things pop culture, from the summer's big blockbuster releases to Hugh Bonneville's acting in Downton Abbey (below). It's a lively, intelligent, enjoyably upbeat affair, driven by enthusiasm and wit rather than the kind of show–off–ish cynicism that now flavours so many culture programmes on this side of the pond.

Radiolab Since its 2004 debut, this American documentary series has won a handful of awards and amassed an audience of nearly two million regular listeners. It deserves even more. Each episode centres upon an unashamedly big scientific or philosophical idea – "truth", "speed", "colour" and so on – which the hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich approach through a mixture of interviews, features and creative sound effects. The results manage to be both powerfully educative and dreamily transporting, and are like nothing else I've heard online.

Barbican Film Podcast Although they only upload new content sporadically, this podcast from the Barbican's cinema team is still well worth following. Each episode features discussion with a film–maker (or film–makers) about their recent work; and is a pleasingly non–stuffy affair. Highlights include Sir David Attenborough, Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield talking about their shared experiences of filming chimpanzees; and the wonderfully expressive French director Olivier Assayas on his award–winning drama, Something in the Air.

Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day Anyone hoping to make their vocabulary a little more Stephen Fry-esque could do worse than subscribe to this podcast from the American dictionary maker Merriam Webster. As the name suggests, each daily episode provides a new word – which a smooth-voiced American narrator defines, explains, and gives a few examples of in usage. Recent highlights include misbegotten, epenthesis and, best of all, sclaff: a verb meaning “to scrape the ground instead of hitting the ball cleanly on a golf stroke”.

Monocle 24: Culture As regular readers of this column will know, Monocle magazine run a slick, seriously resourced online radio station called Monocle 24. Its weekly cultural magazine show (which broadcasts on Wednesdays but is also available as a podcast) is like a hip, energetic younger sibling of Radio 4's Front Row, and often contains features that mainstream broadcasters wouldn't think to make – from a profile of the Saudi Arabian arts scene to a piece on London's newest theatre.

New Yorker: DVD of the Week The once–simple pursuit of choosing a film to watch has become a strangely troubling experience in the digital age, with services like Netflix and LoveFilm offering a mind–bending quantity of titles. This brilliant video podcast by the New Yorker helps to counteract the tyranny of choice, providing one movie recommendation a week, backed up by a three–minute talk from the magazine's movie listings editor, Richard Brody. His selections are deliberately varied, taking in everything from European arthouse to Charlie Chaplin to indie Hollywood hits such as Sofia Coppola's beautifully poised drama Somewhere. I'm yet to be disappointed.

Adjust Your Tracking As Apple’s podcasting charts attest, many listeners are currently getting their film criticism needs serviced by Simon Mayo’s and Mark Kermode’s lively film review podcast. If you want a less-tub-thumping alternative, though, this intelligent American podcast more than provides the goods. New episodes are released every other week, presented by a pair of affable cineastes called Joe von Appen and Erik McClanahan, it features reviews of both mainstream and indie releases as well as interviews with current filmmakers and occasional forays into the archives (recent topics include a look at 1950 film noir The Sound of Fury).

ALOUD @ Central Library One of the lesser–known things about Los Angeles – a city famous for big bucks movie studios, plastic surgeons, Mercedes dealerships and out–of–work actors – is that it also has an intellectual scene that's just as curious and vibrant as anything you'd find on the Eastern seaboard. This series of conversations, readings and performances recorded by the Los Angeles Public Library is an excellent case in point; and has had me daydreaming about moving to Santa Monica with a trunk full of books.Recent highlights include The Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler talking about the female body and a spellbinding interview with Professor Temple Grandin, who was diagnosed with autism in 1950 and is now one of the world's leading experts on the subject.

The National Gallery Podcast If you're like me and regularly miss the big exhibitions at the National Gallery out of sheer absent–mindedness, then this friendly podcast will come as a welcome aide–mémoire. Released once a month by the Gallery, each episode features a preview of a new exhibition and a quirky profile of a painting from their permanent collection. The latest instalment spotlights a Vermeer exhibition (June 2013) and a wonderful Gainsborough portrait of a roguish 18th–century doctor.

Soundcheck from WNYC John Schaefer – an erudite DJ who's basically the Stuart Maconie of American public radio – presents this excellent arts and culture series. It's a rich mix of interviews, live performances and smart features: recent highlights include a studio session from Franz Ferdinand, a special edition on the late, great songwriter Harry Nilsson and a preview of Elvis Costello's new album.

The Art of Photography With high–end digital cameras getting cheaper by the financial quarter – not to mention the fact that most smartphones now come equipped with passably good ones – it's no understatement to say that we're living through the biggest photographic boom in history. Ted Forbes, a professional photographer and filmmaker, saw it coming and set up this highly informative video podcast strand featuring tutorials, tips and history lessons for anyone with an interest in the medium.

Little Atoms Resonance FM, one of London's biggest community radio stations, broadcasts a laudably wide range of niche–oriented content – from dedicated programming for pensioners to Hindi broadcasts. For non–niche listeners, though, it also schedules a few more mainstream, Radio 4–style series – foremost among them this excellent ideas and culture strand presented by Neil Denny. Each episode features a different specialist – from academics to journalists to filmmakers – talking about some of the more interesting aspects of their work. Recently, I've enjoyed Professor Tim Birkhead on what it's like to be a bird, and the author Sarah Wise on lunacy in Victorian England.

Rankin: Meet the Photographer Available as both a video and an audio–only podcast, this interview with the photographer Rankin is a must for anyone with an interest in his work. Recorded to mark the opening of his mortality–themed exhibition in Liverpool, it's a candid affair, covering everything from his working–class upbringing to photographing the Queen.

Vice Media Vice, which began life in the mid–Nineties as a small–scale indie magazine, has steadily become one of the hottest properties in print and online media over the last few years – beloved of both advertisers and hip young people the world over. Part of the reason for their success has been a zeitgeisty blend of fashion, pop culture and ironic humour; but it's also been their fairly recent decision to start making immersive, Gonzo–style pieces of investigative journalism, a handful of which have led to international scoops. This weekly podcast – in which a staffer interviews a contributor to the magazine – contains more of the latter than the former, and has borne a few surprising fruits, including (in episode four) an unsettlingly frank appraisal of the current situation in Afghanistan.

Life in Scents It's always a pleasure to stumble upon a podcast strand that gives a refreshingly different take on a familiar subject. This excellent series does just that, delving headlong into the world of scent and smell with infectious enthusiasm. Each episode features a different guest, whom the hosts – radio producer Jo Barratt and his aptly named colleague Odette Toilette – interview about the smells that have been most important to them. Recent highlights include a barista talking about the subtleties of properly brewed coffee, an astronomer hypothesising on what distant planets might smell like, and the tailor Timothy Everest on the different scents – hot irons, chalk, tweed, cologne – that mingle in his shop. Marcel Proust would doubtless have approved.

Kermode Uncut Twenty years ago, if you asked a member of the UK public to name a famous film buff, they’d probably have said Barry Norman. In the intervening years, the bequiffed, opinionated, obsessively well-informed critic Mark Kermode has taken the baton, and then some. As well as his weekly show with Simon Mayo on Five Live, regular newspaper columns and a presenter spot on BBC Two’s The Culture Show, he also presents a bi-weekly cinema-themed video blog on the BBC, which is available as a video podcast. As you’d expect, it’s a snappy, voluble, informative watch, containing Kermode’s views on everything from The Hobbit to professional projectionists to the worst movies of the last 12 months. An invaluable guide for the current awards mayhem.

Meet the Filmmaker Not satisfied with having a large share of both the devices on which podcasts are downloaded and the infrastructure via which they're distributed, Apple also produces a range of podcast content featuring interviews with some of the bigger names in cinema, music and literature. You'd be forgiven for expecting it to be glib, commercially driven stuff, but actually – as this series about actors and filmmakers exemplifies – it's smart and engaging, occupying a useful middle ground somewhere between Mark Lawson and Jonathan Ross. Recent interviewees include Jude Law, Danny Boyle and Malik Bendjelloul, the director of the Oscar–winning documentary Searching For Sugar Man.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is a handy website that aggregates reviews of films and TV shows, so prospective viewers can gauge – at a glance – whether they’ve been well received or not. Presented by the site’s Editor in Chief, Matt Atchity, and Senior Editor Grae Drake, this lively podcast looks over the week’s latest DVD, cinema and TV releases — and assesses how they’ve been received around the world.

Royal Academy of Arts Events As well as putting on blockbusting exhibitions and running a world–class art school, London's Royal Academy of Arts also hosts a variety of stimulating events, with speakers talking on a range topics inspired by arts and architecture. This engaging podcast strand features recorded highlights from a variety of the talks. I can particularly recommend the edition in which Mariko Mauri and Professor Brian Cox talk about the relationship between science and art; and a lecture on Auguste Renoir and his decision to work with epic canvases.

Charlotte Green's Culture Club It's hard to think of a more soothing, perfectly tuned radio voice than of Charlotte Green, the former Radio 4 newsreader who recently took on new roles at both Five Live, where she reads the classified football results, and Classic FM, where she presents an unpretentious cultural magazine programme. Each episode of this weekly podcast features the main interviews from that show, with recent highlights including conversations with Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes, comedienne Jennifer Saunders and the multi-talented Stephen Fry.

Richard and Judy Book Club It comes as no surprise to find that Richard and Judy – those savvy adjuncts to the British publishing world – produce a podcast strand to go alongside their tri–yearly Book Club. Each episode in the series features an interview with one of the 10 grateful authors who made the list, as well as advice on how to get involved in the Club.

Greg Proops Film Club Once a month, the brilliantly acerbic American comic Greg Proops hosts a screening of one of his favourite films at a Los Angeles cinema and records a 45-minute-long preamble which he releases as this podcast. It’s a stimulating, regularly funny listen, especially if you’re familiar with thefilms under discussion – which range from Howard Hawks’s noir classic The Big Sleep to the surf-themed Keanu Reeves / Patrick Swayze vehicle, Point Break, to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

Entitled Opinions There are two good reasons to listen to this series of podcasts about literature, philosophy and culture. First, they’re presented by a whip-smart Professor of Literature from Stanford University in California. He’s called Robert Winston, is interested in just about everything and also plays lead guitar in a rock band (eat your heart out, Brian Cox). Second, they contain stimulating discussions between Winston and a variety of experts (including Orhan Pamuk) on everything from the writing of David Foster Wallace to the music of The Doors to the birth of the universe.

Seven Years of Monocle Monocle, the high-end, internationally-focussed magazine, website and radio station, recently marked its seventh birthday; and, as part of the celebrations, they’ve made a huge number of their mini-documentary films available as video podcasts. Artfully made, and covering everything from Savile Row tailors to the oil-rich economy of Houston, Texas, they’re a reminder that slick video content isn’t limited to YouTube.

Dum Tee Dum Podcasting-equipped Archers fans, take note: this series is an absolute gem. Presented by the broadcaster and technologist Roifield Brown and a journalist and self-proclaimed Archers obsessive called Lucy Freeman, each episode begins, rather brilliantly, with a different homespun version of the Archers’ famous theme-tune as phoned in by a listener. After that, there’s discussion of the latest gossip from Ambridge, jovial analysis of the show’s plotlines and acting, and opinionated contributions from other listeners. It’s beautifully produced, tightly edited and suffused with just the right mixture of fun and decorum.

Grammar Girl Is it tenterhooks or tenderhooks? What, exactly, is a gerund? Why is 'irregardless’ in the dictionary? Why isn’t 'gruntled’? These, and hundreds of other curiosity-piquing questions about the red-herring-strewn minefield that is the English language (that, by the way, was a mixed metaphor) are clearly answered in this series by a sparklingly bright American writer and Web entrepreneur called Mignon Fogarty – aka the Grammar Girl. Perfect for budding writers, Scrabble enthusiasts and trivia hounds.

Random @ Podium.me Podium.me is a great online platform which gives creatively inclined under-20s from across the UK a space in which to air everything from op-ed pieces and audio features to short fiction and songwriting. Their 'random’ podcast feed contains a mixture of all of the above, and is well worth a listen.

How Did This Get Made? Every so often, a film comes out that is so comprehensively awful that it’s actually worth watching; and this wry, cultishly popular podcast from the Earwolf stable shines a light on some of the best (or worst) examples in the field. Hosted by a trio of whip-smart American film buffs, each episode focuses on a single movie, pouring over wooden acting, implausible narrative arcs and clunky editing with likeable gusto. Recent featured titles include the ill-fated Hulk Hogan vehicle Mr Nanny, computer game adaptation Mortal Kombat, erotic Bruce Willis thriller Color of Night and the credulity-defying Easy Rider 2: The Ride Back. If you like it enough, you can support the podcast by donating on their website.

Barbican Contemporary This stimulating monthly podcast from the Barbican features interviews with and performances from many of the contemporary artists who pass through the venue. I’ve enjoyed almost all of them; but can particularly recommend the Sun Ra special (May) and the celebration of David Lynch (June).

Power Quotes Depending on your levels of innate cynicism, you’ll find this series of short motivational podcasts by the American life coach Bert Oliva to be either bracingly useful or hilariously useless. Both responses warrant further listening.